The body, a brainchild of eminent educationist Ram Avtar Sharma, is networking with 175 medical colleges across India.

Talking to IANS, Sharma said: “More than 500 donors have already registered. A website would soon be launched to interact and provide info to prospective donors.”

He added: “We are trying to arrange for free retinas, kidneys, livers and other body parts to the needy poor.”

Sharma and retired banker Dinesh Agnihotri have pledged their bodies to the anatomy department of S.N. Medical College.

“We are trying to get President Pratibha Patil to formally inaugurate the campaign next month,” Sharma told IANS.

“You are crucial for providing medical care. Nursing is not only a profession and a career, it is also a service to humanity,” the president said on International Nurses’ Day.

She said that though India had achieved success in increasing life expectancy and eradicating several endemic diseases, more needed to be done.

She also exhorted more men to take up nursing.

In the awardees were 22 nurses, 11 auxiliary nurse midwives and three lady health visitors. They received Rs.50,000 in cash, a certificate and a medal.

“This award is a rare honour in recognition of their (nurses’) selfless hard work, commitment and extraordinary perseverance in the performance of their duties,” Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad said.

The action seems another impact of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s debut TV show “Satyamev Jayate”, as the action came a day after the superstar met state Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Gehlot Wednesday assured Aamir Khan, whose episode on female foeticide has created a storm, that he will take up the issue of setting up a fast track court with the state chief justice.

“Chief minister had met state officials to know more about the extent of the problem immediately after the show was aired Sunday. As per the instructions issued directly from him, we have started cracking down on faulty sonography centres where illegal sex determination tests were conducted,” a senior medical and health department officer told IANS, preferring anonymity.

He added that these centres were found violating the provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal and Diagnostic (PCPNDT) Act, 1994.

“Every centre is required to submit records of the sonography tests every month to the district’s chief medical and health officer under the PCPNDT Act. However, these centres were found violating this law,” the officer said.

“Licenses of six sonography centres have been cancelled while notices seeking an explanation have been issued to 24 other centres. If these centres do not send a satisfactory explanation, their licenses also will be cancelled,” said the officer.

In his show, Aamir Khan highlighted the story of a sting operation done seven years back by two Jaipur journalists to expose increasing female foeticide cases in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The sting by Meena Sharma and Shripal Shakhawat had covered 140 doctors involved in sex determination tests and abortions. None of the doctors has been penalized.

Aamir Khan said in his show that he would appeal to the Rajasthan chief minister to get the cases against the erring doctors clubbed together and try them in a fast track court.

He also urged the viewers to support his signature campaign.

According to Census 2011, Rajasthan now has 883 girls between the ages of 0-6 for every 1,000 boys. The child sex ratio in 2001 was 909.

Alarmed over the skewed sex ratio, the state government recently announced steps to curb pre-natal sex determination tests at ultrasound clinics.

“Blood donation services require a complete revamp. We are planning a national database of blood donors connected through email and social media,” Health Secretary P.K. Pradhan said here Tuesday.

“We want more volunteers for effective resource management and constantly engagement with the community in the database,” Pradhan added.

Already functional in Odisha, e-blood bank service is a web-enabled system for electronic monitoring of blood collection, testing, storage and final use or disposal. The system functions through bar-coding of blood bags to ensure blood collected first is used first in 100 per cent cases.

“An online database of regular donors needs to be maintained. Donors listed in the database will get SMS reminders and encouragement notes so that their interest is maintained,” he said, adding “a similar system could work for organ donation”.

The health ministry is roping in volunteers from the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS). While voluntary blood donation camps organized by schools, colleges and civil society have popularised blood donation among people, a proper collection and transfusion service is needed, the official said.

According to official statistics, the percentage of annual voluntary blood donors per year is around 50 percent, way less than the World Health Organisation’s target of 100 percent collection through voluntary non-remunerated donors.

Dr Sudershan Reddy, President-Elect of Respiratory Chapter of the Congress said that it will provide insights into the mechanisms and phenotypes of severe asthma and severe allergies and will also highlight recent developments in treatment and preventive strategies of severe asthma and severe allergies.

He said that the Congress which is held once in two years would be held in India for the first time.

According to chief cardiologist of the CCHS, Peter Schnohr, the study’s most recent analysis shows that between one to two-and-a-half hours of jogging per week at a “slow or average” pace delivers optimum benefits for longevity.

“We can say with certainty that regular jogging increases longevity. The good news is that you don’t actually need to do that much to reap the benefits,” said Schnohr, based at Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen.

The debate over jogging first kicked off in the 1970s when middle aged men took an interest in the past-time. “After a few men died while out on a run, various newspapers suggested that jogging might be too strenuous for ordinary middle aged people,” recalled Schnohr, according to a university statement.

The CCHS, started in 1976, is a cardiovascular population study of 20,000 men and women aged between 20 and 93 years. Since then the study, which has prompted in publication of over 750 papers, has expanded to include other diseases such as heart failure, pulmonary diseases, allergy, epilepsy, dementia, sleep-apnea and genetics.

For the jogging sub study, the mortality of 1,116 male joggers and 762 female joggers was compared to the non joggers in the main study population. All participants were asked to answer questions about the amount of time they spent jogging each week, and to rate their own perceptions of pace (defined as slow, average, and fast).

The first data was collected between 1976 to 1978, the second from 1981 to 1983, the third from 1991 to 1994, and the fourth from 2001 to 2003.

Results show that in the follow-up period involving a maximum of 35 years, 10,158 deaths were registered among the non-joggers and 122 deaths among the joggers.

Analysis showed that risk of death was reduced by 44 percent for male joggers and 44 percent for female joggers. Besides, the data showed jogging produced an age adjusted survival benefit of 6.2 years in men and 5.6 years in women.

These findings were presented at the The EuroPRevent2012 meeting, in Dublin, Ireland, organised by the European Association for Erdiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR).

Since vitamin D levels decrease during the year’s last quarter when days are shorter and sunlight is relatively weak, this may explain why people are more prone to viral infection during these times.

The study also suggests that vitamin D supplementation, especially in older populations, could strengthen people’s innate immunity against viral infections, the Journal of Leukocyte Biology reports.

“As more and more research into Vitamin D is conducted, we are learning that it is extremely important for human health,” said Victor Manuel Martinez-Taboada, researcher in rheumatology at the Hospital Universitario at the Unversidad de Cantabria in Santander, Spain.

“Our study is no different, and vitamin D supplements should be considered one of many tools that might help when conventional therapies are not enough,” said Martinez-Taboada.

Researchers compared the changes in the blood levels of vitamin D among three groups of healthy subjects: young (20-30 years), middle (31-59 years), and elderly (60-86 years). They found decreased levels of vitamin D with aging.

Finally, they studied whether there was any difference in the three age groups depending on the season since it is well known that a limited sun exposure during darker winter months is related with vitamin D deficiency.

“Any school teacher will tell you that people tend to be sicker during the winter than any other time of the year,” said John Wherry, deputy editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

“Since vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and generally safe, this is a really exciting discovery,” added Wherry.

The company also announced eminent nephrologist Brian J.G. Pereira will join its board as a director.

“We hope to leverage his expertise as we work to build the NephroPlus brand and provide the best kidney care and dialysis treatment to patients in India,” said NephroPlus CEO Vikram Vuppala.

“I look forward to working with the enterprising team of NephroPlus as we actively strive to raise the level of kidney care and dialysis treatment in the country,” said Pereira, an adjunct professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

He also served as president of the National Kidney Foundation in the US.

Each sub-division in Bihar would have an ambulatory van with a doctor for treatment of desease cattle, Animal and Fishery Resources Minister, Giri Raj Singh said.

Singh further said a road map was also being prepared for vaccination of all cattle. Singh disclosed that under the agriculture roadmap prepared by the state government for 2012-17, the government had planned to spend around Rs 14,500 crore for several projects to be executed by the department.

Last year it had appointed a  Gopa Mitra  in every panchayat across the state to provide medical care  and artificial insemination (AI)  Facilities for animals.

At present, 773 regular veterinarians and 404 veterinarians appointed on contract basis are in service in the state.

The study is the first to examine soda’s effect on stroke (when brain is deprived of blood supply) risk. Previous research has linked sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout and coronary artery disease.

“Soda remains the largest source of added sugar in the diet,” said Adam Bernstein, study author and research director at Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported.

“What we’re beginning to understand is that regular intake of these beverages sets off a chain reaction in the body that can potentially lead to many diseases – including stroke,” added Bernstein, according to a university statement.

The research analyzed soda consumption among 43,371 men, who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study between 1986 and 2008, and 84,085 women who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study between 1980 and 2008. During that time, 2,938 strokes were documented in women while 1,416 strokes were documented in men.

In sugar-sweetened sodas, the sugar load may lead to rapid increases in blood glucose and insulin which, over time, may lead to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and inflammation, all of which are risk factors of ischemic stroke (blood supply to the brain is blocked). This risk for stroke appears higher in women than in men.

Conversely, coffee contains chlorogenic acids, lignans and magnesium, all of which act as antioxidants and may reduce stroke risk. When compared with one serving of sugar-sweetened soda, one serving of decaffeinated coffee was associated with a 10 percent lower risk of stroke.